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Casey Neistat criticizes YouTube over its Earning Policy

One of YouTube's most influential vloggers has
chastised the service's leaders, claiming they are failing many of their most
popular video creators.

Specifically,
Casey Neistat criticised the way the platform had made it impossible for some
videos to generate advertising revenue, without clearly explaining the rules to
its community.

One of his
own videos - an interview with Indonesia's president - was temporarily
"demonetised" last week.

YouTube has
said it is listening.

"We
watched Casey's video and appreciate him and the wider community voicing their
concerns," a spokeswoman told the Media.

"We
know this has been a difficult few months, and we're working hard to improve
our systems. We're making progress, but we know there is a lot more to
do."

Mr. Neistat
has more than eight million subscribers on YouTube, who have signed up to be
alerted when he posts. He has also struck a multi-million-dollar deal to create
content for CNN on the platform.

He is
normally viewed as being one of the leading champions of the site.

But in a
video posted on Tuesday, he said he felt compelled to speak out because the
level of upset among creators posed an "existential threat to YouTube's
entire business".

The Google
division began stripping some videos of adverts earlier in the year after
several major brands suspended YouTube campaigns because their marketing clips
had been attached to extremist content.

To address
the problem, YouTube introduced an algorithm that determines which clips are
"family friendly" and thus allowed to continue making money for their
creators.

But Mr
Neistat said the decision-making process had been badly communicated.

"There
are no answers anywhere, and there's no-one telling you what's going on,"
he said.

"The
thing that was most troubling for me... was the lack of communication, the lack
of transparency on the part of YouTube."

"People
are... putting the same amount of work, the same amount of energy and the same
amount of expense into the content they're creating, but now they're getting
paid only a fraction of what they did."

A recent
decision to demonetise creators' videos about the Las Vegas shootings had
caused particular ire, Mr. Neistat said, since a video featuring the chat-show
host Jimmy Kimmel discussing the same incident had been allowed to continue
featuring ads.

"It
sort of reeks of hypocrisy, and again the community felt like a second-class
citizen," he said.

As a rule,
YouTube prevents adverts from running on videos about tragedies.

But this does
not apply to clips posted by select partners - including Mr Kimmel's employer,
ABC - who are allowed to sell ads themselves rather than relying on Google to
do so.

A recent
clip of Jimmy Kimmel discussing a mass shooting in Las Vegas was allowed to
show adverts

"In the
specific case of tragedies, like the one in Las Vegas, we are working to not
allow such partners to sell against such content," a YouTube spokeswoman
said last week.

"We
have not completed this work yet, but will soon."

Mr Neistat
suggested a better alternative would be to give creators more control over
whose adverts appeared alongside their clips.

The
video-maker is far from being the first YouTuber to complain about the issue.
But one industry-watcher said his intervention carried weight.

"People
look to Casey to be not just an inspiration but also a voice for the community
- he's very well respected and people do listen to what he says and follow his
lead," said Alex Brinnand, editor of TenEighty magazine.

"The
fact that he has put out this video... will help ensure his audience is aware
of the issue and becomes as equally unhappy as he is."

Mr Neistat
highlighted that Twitter's rival video-based social network, Vine, had
collapsed after its managers had disappointed several of its leading clip
creators and suggested YouTube could face a similar exodus.

"When
you think about Netflix or Amazon or Hulu or any of these other digital
distribution platforms right now, they've all got money, they're all willing to
spend money, and they're trying to figure out how to diversify their
audience," he said.

He added
that Amazon's Twitch service - which currently focuses on video-games-related
live feeds - had already tempted some.

Twitch began
allowing users to upload pre-recorded videos a year ago and may unveil new
features at its annual TwitchCon event, which begins on Friday.

The federal
government through the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has apologised
to Air Peace Airlines and its passengers after a herd of cattle strayed onto
the runway of Akure Airport in Ondo state.

Nigerian
football star Victor Moses scored on his 209th Premier League appearance as
Chelsea put behind them their recent struggles by thrashing West Bromwich
Albion 3-0 at the Stamford Bridge on Monday.

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The Special
Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Media, Lauretta Onochie has
responded to the claims that the Tsaigumi commissioned in Kaduna during the
week, was first launched by ex-president Goodluck Jonathan in 2013.